Today the United States finds itself at a crossroads. Trends at home and around the world are fundamentally changing the way we work and live. Domestic trends-the graying of the baby boomers, for instance, and the drive to devolve the creation and management of social policy from Washington to the nation’s state houses, city halls, and neighborhoods are coinciding with the unprecedented sweep of economic globalization. Reinforcing both the speed and scope of these transformations are rapid and increasingly ubiquitous technological changes. So too is an emerging consensus that democratic political institutions and market-based economic institutions hold out the best hopes for a prosperous and secure future. The direction we chart from this historic crossroads will take us through territory rife with complexity and potential calamity, but also ripe with promise and opportunity.